History, doctrine, culture, books

Borrowing the title from my good friends at BCC, let's talk about sorcery, another interesting topic that is discussed in the April 2017 Ensign article "The War Goes On." The central claim of the article is that gay marriage is Satan's counterfeit version of "marriage between a man and a woman" that is "ordained of God," because gay marriage "brings neither posterity nor exaltation." But the article also addresses counterfeit faith, counterfeit love, counterfeit priesthood, and counterfeit miracles:

One of Satan’s counterfeits for faith is superstition. His counterfeit for love is lust. He counterfeits the priesthood by introducing priestcraft, and he imitates God’s miracles by means of sorcery.

Millennial Star posted links to a podcast discussion with Patrick Mason on the development of Mormon History since the formation of the LDS Church and the recent emergence of academic Mormon Studies programs over the last ten years or so. Well worth listening to. The episode is also available at the LDS Perspectives Podcast site.

Both professionalization of the discipline and the new academic programs are positive steps. But some tension, even conflict, with traditional LDS approaches to history and with LDS leadership (which rarely welcomes constructive criticism) is likely. I see that tension and conflict as growing pains, a transitional phase that will, after a time, make the Church a stronger and better institution. In any case, it is a necessary and inevitable change, so it might as well be embraced. As Mason notes in the podcast, "The Internet changed everthing." Transparency is unavoidable. Transparency is the new institutional reality.

The MormonLeaks site continues to periodically post documents providing a bit of inside information on the operation of LDS bureaucracy and leadership. The latest batch of posted documents includes a powerpoint graphic showing various threats to the Church. Well, included — in response to a "take down" letter from the Church, that graphic has since been removed from the site MormonLeaks used to displaying it, as related in an SL Trib story, "LDS Church goes after MormonLeaks." The graphic is still available (for the moment) at the Mormon Stories page for the podcast in which several panelists discuss the interesting graphic.

Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of MormonismGivens and Grow's warts-and-all biography of this energetic missionary, author, and apostle whose LDS career spanned Joseph Smith's life, the emigration to Utah, and Brigham Young's early leadership of the Church in Utah. My Review